This invention relates to gas turbine engine exhaust nozzles and particularly to a cooling air management system for a movable and articulated panel centerbody operable in a two-dimensional nozzle.
Because of the hostile environment associated with the aircraft gas turbine engine exhaust and in order to effectively utilize the exhaust nozzle as a flight control adjunct to aircraft operation, it is necessary to cool the working components. As can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,868 granted to G. F. Goetz (the joint applicant of this patent application), a two-dimensional exhaust nozzle is integrated with the airframe and a centerbody is articulated to provide certain flight control modes, as thrust vectoring, thrust reversing, internal nozzle expansion and variable nozzle geometry. This invention contemplates the cooling of such component parts to assure proper workability at these or other flight control modes and utilizes a cooling management system to assure adequate cooling during all the flight regimes while efficiently utilizing the cooling air to minimize engine performance penalties. To conserve on air the flight management system feeds certain compartments defined within the centerbody and coordinates the source of cooling air between ram air and fan discharge air during given aircraft operating regimes.